Previous work on exit in declining industries has neglected mergers. We examine a simple model that predicts which declining industries experience horizontal mergers. Mergers are more likely if 1) market concentration is high; 2) the inverse demand curve is steep at high levels of output and...

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) constitute a disruption to the working environment of the inventive labor force of the acquired company. If inventors would respond with a decline of their patent productivity or departure from the firm this can be detrimental to the innovative process within the...

Technological change is often hypothesized as one of the main drivers of merger activities. This paper analyzes the role of technology in mergers and acquisitions (M&As) at the firm level. Based on a newly created data set that combines financial information and patent data for public limited...

In the context of increasing globalization of markets, merger and acquisition activities in the 1990s are said to be driven by reorganization processes with respect to concentration on firms? core competencies in order to increase or maintain market power in international markets. This paper...

The desirability of anti-takeover provisions (ATPs) is a contentious issue. ATPs might enable managerial empire building by insulating managers from disciplinary takeovers. However, some companies, such as ‘hard-to-value' (HTV) companies, might trade at a discount due to valuation...

We examine the relation between patent thickets and acquisitions. Patent thickets are dense webs of overlapping intellectual property rights that create costs by complicating licensing negotiations and increasing the risk of holdup and litigation. We find that firms are less likely to be...

This paper provides both theoretical perspectives and empirical evidence on the relationship between mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and corporate innovation. It also identifies relevant policies implemented by countries around the world to encourage corporate innovation activities, and...

Do horizontal mergers shape the way an industry evolves? I answer this question by investigating the non-merging rivals’ investments. Based on the stylized fact that the rivals’ performance on average declines in the three years following horizontal mergers, I find the rivals become more...

Using a large and unique patent-merger dataset over the period 1984 to 2006, we show that companies with large patent portfolios and low R&D expenses are acquirers, while companies with high R&D expenses and slow growth in patent output are target firms. Further, technological overlap between...